Today’s Labor Quote: Robert Poli

“This is total intimidation. All it’s doing is making our people tougher. We are going to stay on strike as long as it takes.” 
Robert Poli was president of the PATCO union of air traffic controllers when they struck in 1981 and were fired by president Reagan. The controllers waged a struggle that lasted months and won broad working-class support, best exemplified by the 500,000-strong Solidarity Day march in Washington on September 19, 1981. Reagan's firing of strikers gave employers a green light to attack workers and their unions. Poli died in 2014.